Sunday, 3 December 2017

A few weeks
ago, I went to the Hokusai exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (with
Geoff).Of course, one of the highlights
was The Wave – in fact, 2 highlights as they had 2 different prints (a few
hundred apart in the print run) which meant you could see how the precision of
the lino cut would deteriorate over the course of prints.

However,
the exhibition was considerably larger than the well know Wave and Mt Fuji
related prints.The botanical and bird
prints were really beautiful – softer colours of green, peach and pink, and of
interesting birds and flowers. Ultimately, I was captivated by the water prints
and my mind immediately turned to the waves mittens in Making Magazine, issue 3,
as well as some tonal blue Infinity Twist yarn in my stash, and off I went.

I cast on
for the middle size, knit the requisite ribbing and moved in to the colour work
pattern.I was particularly captivated
by the long, slow growing thumb gusset.It
started on the 3rd round of colourwork and stretched out over 28
rows.I find that it fits really well.

I made
mitts, rather than mittens, given the climate in Melbourne.Since I didn’t have the space over the
fingers to transition from waves to dots, I changed the colourwork to separate
those 2 elements.I also decreased 6
stitches before I moved into the top ribbing to get a closer fit.

Again, due
to lack of space I changed the thumb.This time I simply finished in stockinette and ribbing in the background
colour as I didn’t fancy colourwork over such a small circumference!

Sunday, 19 November 2017

My love of
wollmeise continues to grow, with my recently completed Raiun in some fuchsia
WM pure, give to my as a farewell gift by my lovely friend Renee (of East
London Knit), when I moved out of London earlier this year.

After some
careful deliberation and research of open front cardigans, including some helpful
input from one half of the podcast team ‘Imagined Landscapes’, Katie.I chose Raiun by Kirsten Johntone, a Melbourne
based architect/knitwear designer.

I’m just so
pleased with it – the neckband is beautiful, provisionally cast on at the
middle of the back neck and worked out in each direction, before picking up
stitches for the body. I particularly like the shaping across the back, as the
ribbing pulls the back in just a smidge.

Mods wise,
I shortened the overall length – maybe 4m shorter than called for – and the
final 2.5cm is ribbed the whole way across the body to avoid curling stockinette
in the middle of the back. Finally, I completely ignored the instructions for
the sleeves and just did my usual thing for fingering weight sleeves. I knit
both the body and the sleeves on 3.5mm needles, so the fabric on the sleeves is
slightly tighter (as I knew it would be).I think that was the right decision as the body is a little drapier and
the sleeves don’t bag out in the elbows.

Tuesday, 7 November 2017

In the next
part of my #makenine sewing project (which may be turning into a make eight) I’ve
recently completed a more formal version of the Avid Seamstress Day Dress.Although, I don’t know if I would describe
the dress as coming from their pattern once you consider all modifications that
I made.

To begin
with, the bodice is entirely different and comes from the bodice pattern
drafting class I did at Ray Stitch, in London, in May this year. I’m still not entirely happy with it – in particular,
I’m not sure if the arm hole is deep enough.I think I need to try on some ready to wear clothes and probably deepen
the arm hole by about 1cm.

I did the
pleated skirt variation, using the tutorial on the Avid Seamstress blog.Do not use the tutorial – it is incredibly
verbose and unclear and the numbers did not work for me.Further, I think the skirt pattern needs to
be cut wider to enable deeper pleats.

Ultimately,
this dress is a great option for occasions, rather than a work dress because it’s
quite restrictive through the sleeves (which is why I think the arm hole isn’t
deep enough!)

I
absolutely adore the fabric – the Nani Iro sateen is lovely, and the print is
fantastic.The metallic areas do feel a
little thicker or firmer, but looks wonderful, so definitely worth it.I’ve bought another print from the fabric
line for another dress.